Europe’s Green eMotion Clears the Way for Electromobility

Europe’s Green eMotion Clears the Way for Electromobility

BRUSSELS, Belgium, April 13, 2011 (ENS) – The European Commission has launched Green eMotion, a four year cross-European initiative to prepare for environmentally-friendly mobility.

The 42 partners in the 42 million euro initiative are industrial companies and automobile manufacturers, utilities, municipalities, universities, technology and research institutions. They will share information to expand their electromobility know-how and experience in selected regions across Europe.

“Electromobility will make an important contribution toward reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Green eMotion is intended to ensure the fast-track success of electric vehicles,” said Siim Kallas, vice president of the European Commission and the commissioner responsible for transport.

Speaking earlier this month at one of a series of introductory events, Kallas said environmentally-friendly mobility will be a major challenge in the future, on a par with the growing trend toward urbanization, the steady rise in the world’s population, the increasing scarcity of natural resources, and global climate change.

Standardization is a key factor for a fast and cost-efficient European rollout of electromobility, he said.

The total number of charging stations within the existing demonstration regions will be more than 10,000, as nearly 1,000 are planned for Barcelona, Madrid and Malaga, some 400 in Rome and Pisa, approximately 3,600 in Berlin and about 100 in Strasbourg.

In Denmark, the country with the world’s largest share of wind-based power generation, car importers expect to put 2,000 electric cars on the roads this year and as many as 2,000 public and semi-public charging stations will be installed in Copenhagen, Bornholm and Malmo.

Some 2,000 electric vehicles and approximately 3,500 charging stations are part of a nation wide rollout in Ireland.

Heike Barlag from Siemens, who coordinates the Green eMotion project, said, “The local concepts applied to date, in which experience was accumulated in specific demonstration regions, will now be bundled in cross-European trials. The aim is to pave the way for electromobility throughout Europe. This will require standards for infrastructure, networking and IT.”

A Nissan electric LEAF, center and other electric vehicles participate in the Future Car Challenge, November 6, 2010 (Photo by Nissan EU)

Participants in the the Green eMotion project will gather experience with cars, buses and two-wheelers with pure electric drive systems and as hybrid vehicles.

Some of the demonstration regions will test out battery swapping and DC charging as well as smart grid integration, cross-border traffic, different payment systems and the testing of alternative business models.

“By bundling individual activities in a major partner initiative we’re gaining momentum and transparency, and ensuring the coordinated development of electromobility,” said Barlag.

The Renault Nissan Alliance, one of the participating organizations, said in a statement Monday that this European initiative “fits perfectly with the Alliance’s aim to be a global leader in zero-emission mobility.”

By 2015, the Alliance projects, it will have the capacity to produce 500,000 electric vehicles and batteries at its plants around the world. The Green eMotion project has been budgeted at 42 million euros, of which the EU will contribute about 24 million.

The project is part of the Green Cars Initiative, one of the three Public Private Partnerships of the European Economic Recovery Plan announced by the European Commission President Jose Barroso in November 2008.